(1863) Copper-Nickel Civil War Store Card F-175S-4do, Worthington & Co. OH

Coin Details

Auction Record

$780 MS63 09-02-2021 Stack's Bowers

Description

Fuld 175S-4do — store card of Geo. Worthington & Co., Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland was a major Lake Erie port and growing industrial center connected to Eastern markets by railroad and the Ohio & Erie Canal. The 17 cataloged varieties for Geo. Worthington & Co. indicate a notable level of token production. This piece is an overstrike struck over a host coin, an 1863 Indian Head cent. Traces of the original design may be visible beneath the new impressions. Each unique combination of obverse and reverse dies constitutes a separate Fuld catalog number, even when struck in the same metal. Between 1862 and 1864, Northern merchants produced millions of private tokens to compensate for the disappearance of federal coinage. Copper-nickel strikings are moderately scarce, resembling the federal Indian Head cent in both size and color. The cent-sized format was chosen deliberately to match the federal Indian Head cent, the coin most conspicuously absent from daily commerce.

Rarity Notes

Copper-nickel strikings are moderately scarce compared to pure copper or brass versions. Overstrike varieties are generally scarcer than tokens struck on blank planchets, as they required sourcing and re-striking existing coins. With 17 cataloged varieties, Geo. Worthington & Co. was a notable token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 175S-4do